Free Muscle Medicine: The Revolutionary Approach to Maintaining, Strengthening, and Repairing Your Muscles and Joints by Rob Destefano, Joseph Hooper Page A

important is a five- to ten-minute warm-up to get the blood pumping to the muscles and to warm up the entire musculoskeletal system. As your body begins to generate heat, your connective tissue softens and becomes more pliable and less prone to strain, sprain, or tear. Outdoors, a brisk walk or a slow jog is a good option. At the gym, keeping a low intensity on the treadmill, elliptical trainer, or stationary bike all work just fine.
    Stretching
    As we’ll discuss in the next chapter, a lot of exercise experts have grown skeptical about the benefits of “static” stretching, where you hold a stretch for ten to thirty seconds. But “dynamic” stretching, where you incorporate movement, is a good way to stimulate the muscle to recover its full, natural range of motion. There is no one perfect time to stretch. Anytime after the warm-up is fine. Some runners may discover that they get more benefit from stretching after their run to relieve tightness in their calf muscles. Try some of these dynamic movements to see what works for you:
• Extend your arms sideways and move them around in a circle. Start with small, tight circles and expand. Switch to your legs. Balance on one leg, lift the other slightly in front of you, and rotate it as though you were trying to draw a circle with your foot. Change legs.
• Vigorously move your outstretched arms from the front to the side and back, crisscrossing the arms in front of the chest.
• Hold on to a table or a fence or a pole with your left arm and swing your right leg and right arm in the opposite direction, loose and easy. Change sides.
• Lie on the floor on your back, knees bent, feet flat on the ground. Keeping the knees together, lower them both to one side. Then, engaging the abs, swing the knees to the other side. Go back and forth in a continuous movement.
    Balance
    In bare feet, stand on one leg for twenty seconds, then switch to the other leg for twenty seconds. (If you start to lose your balance, stop and start over again; don’t wave your arms around to try to recover.) To make it more challenging, switch back to the original leg and balance for twenty seconds, this time with your eyes closed, then back to the other leg for twenty seconds, eyes closed. Not only are you working the postural muscles to keep you upright without the usual support (i.e., two legs), the eyes-closed portion trains mind and body to know where you are in space (i.e., proprioception), and to stay in balance without visual cues.
    The single-leg toe touch is a great all-in-one exercise that strengthens the muscles of the entire body, including the core, as they help with balance and stabilization. If you’re not ready for it now, come back to it in a few weeks or months. Stand balanced on one foot, keeping the back and neck in a straight line. Keep your eyes fixed on a point on the floor about four feet in front of your foot. Bend at the waist, reaching for the supporting foot with the opposite hand. Bend the knee as much as necessary to balance and stay pain-free. Hold for a count of two. Do ten repetitions, held for no more than two seconds each. The goal is not to reach the foot but to stay steady. Remember to breathe and not clench the teeth. (See page 167.)
    The yoga “sun salutation” is another excellent combination of balance, stretch, and strength. With twelve distinct movements in a sequence, the how-to is a little cumbersome, but you can Google the instructions or buy a beginner’s yoga book or, better yet, take a class. (You could think of it as a more “mindful” Eastern version of stretch, push-up, and squat-thrust rolled into one.) Five or ten sun salutations will prime the body for just about any workout.
    Skill
    The problem with out-of-condition recreational athletes is that too often they think they’re still young, conditioned athletes. That’s how they persuade themselves that it’s okay to jump back into a softball or basketball league, or a regular tennis routine,